PROBE: May 3, 2001

QUESTION: After the Imperial High School prom, some of the prom attendees went to an "after prom" party at an El Centro motel. They got so loud somebody called the cops.

When the cops came, the kids had beer, marijuana and a bowl full of pills. I don't know what kind of pills were in the bowl but I heard it was the designer drug ecstasy.

About 20 kids were arrested and their parents called. However, the school has done nothing to discipline the students or take away privileges. Are these kids going to be allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies? — Shocked, Imperial

We don't know how to break this to you, but sometimes kids get away with stuff. And those Imperial revelers may get away with this.

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Remember, though, some got busted by the cops so there may be some legal penalties to pay.

Imperial Unified School District Superintendent. Barbara Layaye said school administrators know something happened but they don't know what or exactly who did it.

In any case, it didn't happen at a school function. The school is not responsible for the "after prom" party, said Layaye.

State law says the school must monitor school-sanctioned events.

That means nobody will be exiled from graduation ceremonies or sentenced to Saturday school or face whatever they do to miscreants in Imperial.

The official prom at the Barbara Worth Golf Resort was, by all accounts, a sedate affair worthy of the hardworking chaperones.

NO LONG WAITING LIST — The statement in PROBE that there is a long waiting list for transitional shelter for victims of domestic violence is wrong.

There is a vacancy now and we expect to have two more by the end of the summer. The six units are in El Centro, Imperial and El Centro. — Executive Director, El Centro

OK, if you have been a victim of domestic violence, you can apply for transitional shelter at the Center for Family Solutions, 395 Broadway, Suite 5 in El Centro.

It's not necessarily low-income housing. You will be expected to pay 30 percent of your income. Whether that's a bargain depends on how much you make.

QUESTION: My father wasn't home when our dog was killed, so my mother called county animal control. Animal control said it could not come out to move the dog's body.

So there we were, my mom, my sisters and I, mourning the loss of our dog. We didn't know what to do. Luckily our neighbor was home and helped us.

Isn't that what animal control is paid to do? — Mourning, rural Imperial

That's not what animal control officers are paid to do. They're paid to collect and control stray or unruly animals.

There are only three animal control officers to service the whole county. That means on any given day, only one officer may be available to respond to calls for help from Bombay Beach to Calexico and from Winterhaven to Ocotillo. They don't have time to conduct pet funerals and comfort the mourning human survivors.